The most current film in the Resident Evil film series, lets get to it! SPOILERS
Retribution takes place after an uncertain amount of time from the events of Afterlife and Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been captured by the Umbrella Corporation. She finds herself in a special Umbrella facility deep under the ice in Russia that is under the control of the revived Red Queen and has simulations of major world cities. However a strike unit has been sent to free Alice under orders from Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) and consisting of Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), Leon Kennedy(Johann Urb), Barry Burton (Kevin Durand) and Lurther West (Boris Kodjoe). However the Red Queen is prepared for intruders as she has hundreds of monsters at her disposal while her human clone forces are led by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory).
 |
| Place your bets on who to win |
Once again this is directed by Paul Anderson and even though it is obvious at this point the film is again an entirely original plot not based on any of the games however it draws inspiration from 5 and 4.
 |
| Your still as great as ever Milla! |
I want to talk about the story first before getting in to the characters because I really want to say that it story might actually be one of the weakest in the series. Overall I did enjoy watching this film however it just nagged me with how many similarities it had with the first one. For example the Red Queen A.I. is back again and running Umbrella but there is no explanation as to why she is back when she was fried at the end of the first film, we already had her as a villain I just don't get why she had to come back. Also even though it is set in a massive underground testing facility it again felt too similar to the setting in the first film because once again the characters have to escape from it because of a time limit. Lastly I do not get why Wesker is suddenly helping Alice and humanity because he just seemed to want to destroy both in Afterlife, I know he might have a secret plan to be revealed in the sequel but still I just don't get it. However I did find the whole cloning aspect in this interesting and all of the simulated environments that they have.
 |
| "Who wants to experience ultimate pain first?" |
Once again we have Alice back and she is just as great as ever with a cool new costume and kicking some zombie ass. For other returning characters we also have Lurther and Wesker; Lurther, like in Afterlife, is a great character but he doesn't feel as significant in this one but I'm still glad he is in it but I really wished that Wesker had a larger role because he is only in it for a few scenes. We also have Jill Valentine and I am so glad she has returned because I really liked her from Apocalypse and she is more like her 5 version here. Whatever problems I have with 5 I liked Jill in it because she was like some unstoppable killer; pulling off some great moves and in a skin tight purple outfit I might add and its all been adapted perfectly here.
 |
| "Who shall I get to push me?" |
For other returning characters we have Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), One (Colin Salmon) and Carlos (Oded Fehr) and it was a surprise because they are all dead but that is where the cloning comes in. Seems they where cloned after death to be Umbrella soldiers and characters in a simulation so we have good and bad versions of Rain and Carlos. I really liked that they did this because Rain and One at least got to have a larger role in the film series now overall and its always great to see Carlos back. Also Rain fighting along side Jill at the end is one of the best moments in the film and is just as good (actually probably better) than the Wesker fight in Afterlife.
 |
| "Who wants to mess with this badass team?!" |
Now for the new characters and I have to say that we have got some great choices and casting. I'll start off first with Johann Urb as Leon and he is a great character and its good they are using one of Resident Evil's most known protagonist but I kind of felt that he didn't have that much of a presence in this. As for Ada, Li Bingbing really nailed it as her because she looked exactly like her and I liked all of the scenes she was in. However my favourite was Kevin Durand as Barry because firstly I feel like I am seeing Kevin Durand in a lot of films lately (he is on The Strain right now) and he is such a great actor but I am also just really glad that Barry is in the films. Barry is a great character in the games but so, so underused (like Billy and Rebecca) since he has never been a playable character and hasn't had a large role since 1 (unless you count the cameo in 3). But in this film Barry was awesome, he was great in all of the action scenes and his death scene was so badass the way he shot One. Sure he died in this but I think he has had a better role in this than the games have been giving him!
 |
| I thought this in the games and I am thinking this now: That red dress isn't practical field gear! |
Now on to the monster which is the biggest weakness of the Resident Evil films and that is because we barely get any. First we have the zombies but they are actually the best monsters in this film because they where awesome. They are like the military ones from 4, 5 and 6 in which they use guns and vehicles and I thought I wouldn't enjoy it much because in the games I prefer proper zombies. However in the scene where they are all attacking Barry, Leon and Lurther in the Russia simulation was so cool and they even had a chainsaw wielding one that looked damn creepy. This film failed though in bringing back the Executioner and the Licker from the previous films and I just wonder why? We have already seen them couldn't they have given us something else? I don't care if there where two Executioners and a giant Licker I wanted Hunters or Bandersnatches or one of the bosses.
 |
| Best character in the film |
Overall this might be the weakest entry in the film series however I still enjoyed watching it because it had some great action scenes, some new characters from the game and the ending implies a pretty badass finale to the series.
SCORE: 6/10
Highlights: Great action sequences (Alice fighting the zombies, Russia attack, final fight)
More characters from the game (especially Barry!)
Let - Downs: The plot felt too much like the first film
Not enough variety of monsters (again)
You can find all of the great screenshots I used right here;
No comments:
Post a Comment